While most companies shut down during the weekends and employees bolt to the beach this time of year, the Kane Co. and its staff often kick into high gear on Saturdays and Sundays.

After all, those are big days for the Elkridge-based commercial moving, storage and logistics company that caters to the bustling Washington, D.C,. and Baltimore markets.

In fact, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, CEO John Kane, was busy juggling phone calls, preparing to move the International Monetary Fund.

"We can really move a firm in a weekend,'' said Kane, 44, sitting in his freshly built headquarters and warehouse on the newly minted Kane Way.

The facility, where Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this spring, typifies some of the growth that the Kane Co. is experiencing.

"The Kane Co.'s relocation means another headquarters, which is on our target list,'' said Richard Story, CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority. "It is a homegrown company that is expanding beyond its Washington-area roots.''

Once a family affair, the company has seen rapid expansion since Kane, chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, bought the business from his father in 1998.

Since that time, Kane, who got his start washing trucks for his father in 1972, has taken the firm from $38 million in revenues to roughly $60 million at the end of last year. And, he has increased the staff from about 700 people to the existing 1,250.

Some of that growth came from spinning off separate business units, Office Movers Inc., Office Installers Inc., Office Archives LLC and Kane 3PL. Those subsidiaries, then, were better able to capitalize on expansion in the defense sector -- a large portion of Kane's business.

Kane is considered the only commercial moving company on the General Service Administration's schedule, allowing the organization to relocate government agencies and defense contractors as well as store their records.

"About 300 of our employees have some level of clearance,'' said Kane, adding that figure includes all members of the management team.

The federal government, Northrop Grumman Corp. and SAIC are among the company's clients. While the Kane Co. has other defense-related clients, its executives can't name them all.

The defense sector isn't the only area that has provided room for Kane's growth. Public companies, responding to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, have significantly boosted the Kane Co.'s records management business.

"Don't like Sarbanes, but love his bill,'' Kane quipped in his plush office, just outside the warehouse, where boxes are stacked nearly 38 feet high.

In the future, Kane said he envisions all lines of his business continuing to expand. While the company will remain focused on the mid-Atlantic region, it will consider breaking into other areas for existing clients. Now, the Kane Co. is looking at an opportunity in Chicago.

And in terms of employees, Kane said he wants to be careful how quickly he adds to the employee base. The executive, who is married with three young children, said he wants to make sure that new employees "fit the culture.''

Kane, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business' senior management program, said he believes it is important to hire like-minded people with a hard work ethic, good attitude and community-minded spirit.

"Rudy,'' the movie that portrays a scrappy boy with a nearly impossible dream of playing football for the University of Notre Dame, is required viewing for each new recruit. As long as an employee has passion and a good attitude, Kane, a Potomac resident, believes he can be a good coach.

James H. Durfee, vice president of the Kane Co., agrees. Durfee has worked for the Kane Co., formerly the E. I. Kane Co., for nearly three decades.

He praised John Kane for shepherding the company's growth and maintaining a nice corporate environment. When asked what's kept him with the same company for 28 years, Durfee said "the growth and the people.''

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